Central Baptist Church of Tarrant is mixing equal parts of love, hard work and dedication to concoct a successful recipe for bringing young people to Christ.
Through its “cookie ministry,” the church reaches more than 200 children and teenagers weekly with game sessions in the gym and Bible studies.
Since the ministry began, five children have made professions of faith and the church has re-established its dormant youth program.
It all began with a challenge, according to Loxcil Tuck, church secretary. Tuck, an energetic Compass Bank retiree who says she’s 70 but “acts 40,” believes in taking good ideas and running with them. Possessing a longtime interest in the education and spiritual growth of young people, Tuck also serves on the Tarrant board of education.
“A young man named Bryant Bush preached a one-day revival last summer and really let us have it about doing the Lord’s work,” Tuck related. “I got to thinking about it and came up with the idea for a cookie ministry. The church is only about a block from Tarrant Middle School, and I had wondered how we could reach out to the children we saw walking by our building.”
Tuck and some church friends baked some cookies, put out signs offering “Free Kool-Aid and cookies” and waited for customers. On that first day, 70 children came. Since then, that figure has more than tripled.
The after-school activities conducted by James Purnell, pastor of Central Baptist, draw hordes of boys and girls of varying ages, races and backgrounds to the church every Wednesday afternoon.
The cookie ministry has invigorated the church, which had a dwindling membership with few children and virtually no youth.
“We’ve started a new Sunday School class and youth group,” Purnell said. “And we now have a youth choir that’s practicing for the musical, ‘City on a Hill.’”
Lea Sawyer, a math teacher at the middle school, helps with the afternoon game sessions. Central Baptist members Evelyn Russell and Nell McCreary regularly show up to help Tuck distribute refreshments. Several other church members also assist.
As any parent knows, providing cookies for 200 kids is an expensive proposition, especially for Central’s aging congregation, many of whom are on fixed incomes. By fall 2003, the cookie fund was rapidly dwindling.
“Just as I was beginning to worry about how we could keep this ministry going, I got a call in October from Art Morgan, who grew up in our church and now lives in Gastonia, N.C.,” Tuck said. “Art asked what was going on. When I told him about the cookie ministry and the five children who had been baptized, he told me he’d send us enough money to keep the ministry going for six months. Others have also made donations.”
“It has shown us what a simple little ministry can do,” Purnell said.
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